Amazon has unveiled a paid subscription-based plan for Alexa's voice apps, or "Skills," that will enable developers to monetize their products, according to TechCrunch.

Previously, developers of Alexa Skills were not provided with any means of monetizing the offerings. As part of the test, Amazon is working with Sony Pictures Television on a new version of the Jeopardy! Alexa Skill that will offer additional content to users who are either Amazon Prime subscribers or who sign up to access a premium Jeopardy! subscription for a monthly fee. The subscription plan follows Amazon's earlier step in May in which the company started directly paying developers who had higher-performing Alexa Skills.

The introduction of a subscription model is an important play by Amazon to incentivize developers to build for its Alexa platform. That's because the more voice app Skills out there, the more useful the voice platform can potentially be for consumers. And more Skills across a wider variety of tasks can make a system like Alexa more appealing than rival voice platforms.

As the race to build the most intelligent assistant heats up, implementing a paid subscription for Alexa Skills bodes well for Amazon's long-term success in the voice assistant market:

It will likely encourage developers to focus on creating high-quality Skills.The opportunity for developers to make money with their Skills via a subscription model may entice them to go the extra mile in terms of the quality of the Alexa Skill experience. That's because developers will need to add value to their Skills in order to convince consumers to sign up to access the premium subscription content.

And this will likely catalyze greater consumer adoption of Alexa.A subscription model for Alexa Skills will bring about new and engaging experiences for its users. Consumers may be more inclined to use Alexa, over rival assistants, enabling it to extend its reach and gain stronger footing in the market.

However, a persistent lack of consumer awareness of Alexa Skills could inhibit more in-depth voice assistant usage. One of the main issues facing Alexa is that users simply don't know how to use the voice assistant beyond simple commands like playing music or getting weather updates. For example, while Amazon's Alexa has access to more than 25,000 Skills, 65% of users have not yet enabled a third-party Skill, according to Activate. To drive greater adoption of Alexa, Amazon will likely need to provide more visibility for third-party Skills from businesses and developers. This will also help make the assistant more useful to consumers, creating a virtuous cycle.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things.

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.

Apple's HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won't dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.

The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.

Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

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